TopSpin 2K25 test – The successful return of a cult tennis game license?

General audience gameplay that borders on perfection

Main aspect of tennis games subject to divisions and criticism in recent years, gameplay is the biggest strong point of TopSpin 2K25. Thanks to its simple and easy-to-understand handling, and a gaming experience that is as deep, precise and “realistic” as possible, the title ticks almost all the boxes to convince and appeal to a wide audience.

Flat, sliced, lifted, uncrossed shots, lobs, drop shots, volleys, controlled, powerful or advanced strikes and/or serves, specific touches to quickly reposition yourself on the court and get to the net, management of timing, power, our placement and endurance… the range of actions at our disposal is complete and well-oiled enough not to be too frustrated in the event of mistakes or errors on our part, including during the first hours of play. displaying all the necessary information on the screen, we always know why we are losing or winning a point.

Add to this a large quantity of different animations in the attitude of the players, including the famous signature moves of the stars of the discipline included in the roster, and it is obvious that the developers have invested in offering us the best in terms of gaming sensations. It's very pleasant, especially since it regularly results in a varied pace of exchanges among the Gentlemen and the Ladies, in Singles and Doubles, and on all surfaces (hard, clay and grass).

Sincerely and at the risk of repeating ourselves, we take a lot of pleasure in playing and, if we really had to cite one or two faults which directly or indirectly affect the game design, we would point out the under-exploitation of the technologies embedded by the DualSense (using speaker and gadget vibrations, no adaptive triggers) and AI behavior. If, overall, we have the impression that she puts up good resistance on the court, she is also sometimes the victim of real moments of confusion or absences.

Launch content that blows hot and cold?

Taking into account the support of a major publisher like 2K Games today and the public's love for the series TopSpinwe had the right to hope that the content of TopSpin 2K25 would be XXL size and premium quality. However, although we understand that some of you may find us very harsh on this point, we do not feel that this is the case. We even think he lacks ambition.

On the casting side, “only” 25 professional players, including legends of the yellow ball, are present like Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Carlos Alcaraz and Maria Sharapova. It's not bad but where are Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Stéfanos Tsitsipás and Aryna Sabalenka to name a few? Certainly, Hangar 13 has already planned to add more in the future, and free of charge a priori, except that we do not know who, how many and especially when. As for the courts, there are nearly fifty, including several under official licenses such as the four main courts of the Grand Slam tournaments, Indian Wells, Monte-Carlo, etc. It's better but we would have liked to have more (Suzanne-Lenglen, Simonne-Mathieu…).

Concerning the game modes, again, the developers have not done anything crazy. In addition to the traditional personalized Exhibition matches against AI, the TopSpin Academy, supported by clear instructions and video tutorials intelligently designed and commented by the iconic John McEnroe, brings together around thirty interesting exercises to do to understand all the cogs of the gameplay.

In addition, in the absence of including online between friends day one, the Online Exhibition multiplayer (friendly games), 2K Circuit (ranked games with professional players) and International Circuit (ranked tournaments with our avatars) should have the shoulders strong enough to increase the lifespan of the title in the long term and provided you have a PS Plus subscription of course. We tried them all and the few matches played with crossplay activated went without technical problems.

Now, let's focus on MyCareer. Devoid of any form of “scripting”, apart from possibly an audio podcast and messaging which do not add much, it invites us to break into the professional male or female circuits in the skin of our own avatar. Face, nose, eyes, clothing, body shape, racket, bag, animation of the serve, forehand and backhand… the creation and customization editor of the Californian studio is relatively complete for the sports game genre. Then it's classic. We have to participate in training sessions, special events and tournaments.

For what purposes? Climb the ranks of the “ATP/WTA rankings”, improve our status by fulfilling specific objectives and acquire various rewards (XP, VC – name given to the in-game currency -, coach and staff members, second homes to limit the exhaustion on each trip…), all while being careful that our level of fatigue is not too low. Otherwise, we expose ourselves to minor or serious injuries that could keep us away from the field for several months. This is nice because these features and ideas all have a place here. Unfortunately, this is not enough to prevent the redundancy and weariness of taking precedence over the pleasure of playing after only one or two seasons.

The monthly Training/Special Event/Tournament sequence is too repetitive and never manages to compensate for the lack of a real calendar offering more freedom and depth to the experience. The challenges during special events are not always very inspired. The tournament tables and the world ranking are not very large (maximum of 32 participants in the Grand Slams and 80 places in the Men's and Women's hierarchies). As for the status system, it can potentially prohibit us from competing in major competitions despite a very good, or even excellent, position on the circuit. In short, the limits of the mode appear far too quickly.

The icing on the cake is that a store, season passes and microtransactions are included. Rest assured, unless we are mistaken, the economic model seems balanced to us so as not to force you to take out your bank card in addition to the time you buy the game. There is enough material to unlock content or improve the stats of our avatars only by playing.

But, although this is not surprising for a 2K production or for a sports game marketed these days, it is always annoying to see this type of policy appear in a product officially priced at minimum 70€, especially that it is necessarily necessary opt for the Grand Slam edition at €120 in order to access season passes at no extra cost which bring together a lot of rewards (XP and VC boosts included). For owners of other editions, it will cost you €10, for the first at least. Everyone is free to appreciate this type of practice or not.

An achievement that is not very next-gen

To conclude this overview of TopSpin 2K25, difficult to be complimentary about its general achievement. Without being catastrophic, it once again lacks ambition and shows room for improvement in several aspects. For example, the modeling of almost all of the faces is unworthy of a title coming out in 2024, the staging is quite poor, whether before, during and at the end of a match, and the sound environment cleared by the crowd is satisfied with the bare minimum most of the time. Besides, if the developers could prevent him from showing his “enthusiasm” before an exchange is really finished, that would be nice because it's a situation that happens too often.

Honestly, it's a shame because the title displays a visual rendering that is pleasing to the eye overall and for a cross-gen production. Playing on clay, indoors, at the end of the day or at night even provides a particular graphic immersion and the brightness management is good. However, we are rather far from the level of technical quality that we expect from a PS5 version. At least, there is no need to force players to choose between favoring resolution, framerate or an alternative between the two in these conditions. That’s already it, right?